hat
Luke L'Estrange has come home I can never forgive you."

"And I should deserve not to be forgiven," I said. "He has come home."

"I knew he was not dead."

"He is alive and well, and one of the first inquiries he made was for
you."

"Now they shall see," she said exultantly, and her lips curled, "how
much truth there was in those slanders of Garret Dawson's. Dear old
souls! why were they afraid? Why would they not let me challenge him?"

"They were not so foolish," I said. "He held papers. If Uncle Luke had
not come home we could not have disproved them."

"And there is an end to your marriage?" she asked breathlessly.

I held out my hand to her. It no longer carried Richard Dawson's ring.

"He set me free last night," I said, "before we knew who was coming
home. You must clear him in your thoughts, godmother. He never knew how
his father had obtained our consent to the marriage. He was furious when
he knew and he set me free. I wish I knew what had become of him."

"Don't trouble about him, child. Presently you will find a lover worthy
of you."

I said nothing, but my heart leaped. I was a proud woman to think that
Anthony Cardew loved me, and still I was grieved for the others.

"You will breakfast with me, child?" she went on.

"I am furiously hungry," I replied. "And afterwards--will you come back
with me to Aghadoe?"

"I think not. If your uncle wants me he will find me here."

"I think he will see Garret Dawson first. He will not come to you till
all that is cleared up."

"It need never be cleared for me. Whatever the story was, it is for me
as though it never existed."

I made a most prodigious breakfast. I had no anxiety as to what they
might think about my absence at Aghadoe; I felt they would know where I
was.

I said no more to my godmother about returning with me. I felt she was
right in waiting for Uncle Luke where she was, and I was sure he would
go to her when he had confronted Garret Dawson and wrung the truth from
him. But after breakfast, lest they should be waiting for me at
Aghadoe, I returned home the way I had come, feeling as though I walked
on air. I could have run and leaped, except when a thought came to me of
Richard Dawson, and then my heart was suddenly heavy.

I entered the woods by the postern gate, and hurried along with a heart
full of gratitude to the kind God who had brought good out of evil and
had delivered us from our troubles.

Just at the edge of the wo